As the world is grappling to contain the COVID-19 outbreak, France has come out with a new research, suggesting that Nicotine could protect people from contracting the Coronavirus, and the country is planning further trials to test whether the substance could be used to prevent or treat the deadly illness.

Researchers based their findings at Pitie-Salpetriere, a top Paris hospital, where they examined 343 coronavirus patients along with 139 people infected with the illness with milder symptoms.

Compared to smoking rates of around 35 percent in France’s general population, they found that a low number of them smoked.

“Among these patients, only five percent were smokers,”  Zahir Amoura, the study’s co-author and a professor of internal medicine was quoted by news agency AFP as saying.

Earlier, similar inferences were published in the New England Journal of Medicine last month that suggested that 12.6 per cent of 1,000 people infected in China were smokers. That was a much lower figure than the number of regular smokers in China’s general population, about 26 per cent, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

According to renown neurobiologist Jean-Pierre Changeux from France’s Pasteur Institute who also co-authored the study, this theory suggests that nicotine could adhere to cell receptors, therefore blocking the virus from entering cells and spreading in the body.

Health authorities in France still have to  carry out further clinical trials to give approval.

Researchers plan to use nicotine patches on health workers at the Pitie-Salpetriere hospital in Paris,  where the initial research was conducted to see if it protects them against contracting the virus.

They have also applied to use the patches on hospitalised patients to see whether it helps reduce symptoms and also on more serious intensive care patients, Amoura said.

The researchers are looking into whether nicotine could help to prevent “cytokine storms”, a rapid overreaction of the immune system that scientists think could play a key role in fatal COVID-19 cases.

But with further research needed, experts are not encouraging people to pick up smoking or use nicotine patches as a protective measure against the virus.

“We must not forget the harmful effects of nicotine,” said Jerome Salomon, France’s top health official.

“Those who do not smoke should absolutely not use nicotine substitutes”, which cause side effects and addiction, he warned.

In France, an estimated 75,000 deaths per year are linked to smoking, making tobacco the number one reason for people getting killed in the country.

With more than 155,000 positive Coronavirus cases and 21, 000 deaths so far, France is one of the hardest hit countries by the pandemic in Europe.

(With AFP inputs)